One of the main 6th grade writing objectives that I have to teach is sentence structure: simple, compound (three ways), and complex sentences. We have spent the last couple of weeks learning what they are, and will now move into writing them.
I wanted a fun way to review these concepts, so at the end of last week, we played a game called Chicken Flingers (Yes. It is EXACTLY what it sounds like). I played this game last summer in a session presented by Those Utah Sisters at the Get Your Teach On conference in Dallas and knew it would be a hit with my students. The template for this game can be found at the sisters website: https://sites.google.com/view/thoseutahsisters/chicken-flingers?authuser=1. All you have to do is download it and insert your own questions. The sisters have even included a “How to play video” on their site. Easy Peasy!
Needed for Game Play:
- Chicken Flingers template with your content added.
- the Chicken Flingers themselves
- a whiteboard and Expo marker for each team
- Washi or painter’s tape
After inserting my questions and answers about sentence structure into the template, I added a two-minute YouTube timer (there is one with a chicken dancing!) to each slide so the kids could see how much time they had remaining. Before play, I did put the slides in Present Mode and click through each and every one to make sure the animations (the answer should pop up when you click the space bar) and timer all worked. This all took me MAYBE 30 minutes. Having the template is a HUGE help!
The only other thing you need to do before playing, is to purchase the flingers. You can get a huge bag from Amazon for pretty cheap and should last you a while. I won’t need to buy any more for a year or two. Keep in mind, that because the flingers are a bit sticky, they can get pretty nasty from falling in the floor, etc. They will need thrown away at the end of the day and can’t be reused the next time. I also had a couple eventually lose their heads from being stretched and launched repeatedly throughout six classes. I began the day with three flingers and had to replace one headless one sometime after lunch. The other lost its head seventh hour, so we just played the rest of that class with two chickens since it was the last class of the day. You can use as many chickens as you ‘d like, but I felt three was a good number. The students took turns flinging rather than all going at once anyway, and this ended up helping me judge whether or not their chicken hit a target.
Lastly, you will need to put your students into groups of 3 or 4, and will need to place a strip of Washi or painter’s tape on the floor a couple feet from your SmartBoard or screen. The kids will stand behind the line and launch their chickens.
The rules are included on the template, but I adjusted them slightly to fit my style and classroom management. Here is how it was displayed as I talked them through game play:
- Teams will have two minutes to read the question and come up with an answer. You may use your notes!
- As soon as you know the answer, write it on your White Board and keep it covered! You don’t want any other team to see or HEAR your answer!
- When time is up, I will ask to see your answers.
- Every team with the correct answer will send ONE member up to the front to fling a chicken.
- If the chicken hits a target, you get that many points.
- If the chicken misses all targets, you get zero points that round.
- Keep track of your points as the game goes on.
- Each round, you must rotate through members who come up and fling. Decide NOW what your order will be and stick to it.
- Once everyone flings and points are tallied, we will begin the next question.
The kids caught on quickly and were ALL IN. When I tell you they were 100% engaged– I mean it! It was so fun to wtch.
A few tips that you might find helpful when preparing your own Chicken Flingers game:
There were several classes also that didn’t need the entire two minutes, so I cut the timer short on several occasions. I made 25 questions, and in my 45 minute classes, we were able to get through about half. I’d say 15-20 questions should be more than enough if you give them two minutes for each round. You can get through more questions if you shorten it to one minute.
Make sure EVERY group has an answer and shows it to you BEFORE revealing the correct answer. This keeps them honest. IF a group doesn’t write down an answer at all in the two minutes, they just don’t get to fling. If an incorrect answer is written, they don’t get to fling. ONLY teams with correct answers send someone up. On tricky questions, I took a minute to explain the right answer before moving onto the next. Great teachable moments!
I think that’s it! I will probably bust this out again for state test prep in April since we didn’t get to all the questions. I’ll also reuse it again next year and am planning to play with other content questions. This game is a keeper! Let me know when you try it in your class!